Oprah and Gloria Steinem to Receive America's Highest Honor

The White House is set to explode with Woman Power.

By
Michelle Ruiz

Aug 08, 2013

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The White House is set to explode with Woman Power later this year, when Oprah (no last name necessary, really), feminist icon Gloria Steinem and late, pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, are awarded the United States' highest civilian honor—the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Queen of Daytime will be honored for her work with women and girls in Africa, while Steinem will be feted for, you know, leading the women's lib movement. Ride, who died last year of pancreatic cancer, will be given the award posthumously for being the first women to fly in space (!) We bow down.

They're not the only bad b*tches getting the Medal of Freedom treatment, according to the AP (via Talking Points Memo): country singer Loretta Lynn will collect for her activist, oft-banned, pro-lady music, along with Maria Molina, Nobel Prize-winning chemist, and Patricia Wald, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington.

Of the 16 honorees, six are women… which isn't so bad, we guess. You may have heard of some of the bros getting the medal—including former president Bill Clinton and baseball player Ernie Banks.